(Goma) The UN chief called on Sunday to the withdrawal of the Rwandan forces, which fight the Congolese army in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with the armed group of the M23 and advanced with him until At the gates of the big town of Goma.
Updated at 11:21 a.m.
AFP teams in North Kivu
Agency France-Presse
After the failure of a DRC-Rwanda mediation under the aegis of Angola, the M23 and 3000 to 4000 Rwandan soldiers, according to the UN, have quickly gained ground in recent weeks. They now surround the capital of the North Kivu province, Goma, which has a million inhabitants and almost as many displaced.
Fighting takes place on Sunday at a handful of kilometers from the city, according to concordant security sources.
Photo Jospin Mwisha, Agency Archives France-Presse
Guatemah soldiers of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Monusco) ensure the evacuation of civilian personnel not essential to Goma, on January 25, 2025.
The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who had so far not so clearly questioned Kigali, is “deeply concerned about the escalation of violence” and calls “the Rwandan defense forces to stop supporting The M23 and to withdraw from the territory of the DRC, “according to a statement released on Sunday by its spokesperson.
A Rwandan drone opened fire on Congolese positions about six kilometers from Goma on Sunday, security and UN sources told AFP.
“A TB2 drone from the Rwandan army has shot on one of our positions,” said a security source close to the FARDC. According to several sources within the UN mission in the DRC (Monusco), “at least two paramilitaries” were seriously injured by these shots.
Other bombings have affected the Rusayo displaced camp, in the outskirts of Goma, according to several humanitarian sources that have not yet given a balance sheet.
Photo Jospin Mwisha, Agency France-Presse
Civilians evacuate the region following the fighting between the rebels of the M23 and the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC), in Goma, province of North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, January 26, 2025.
In downtown Goma, we hear heavy detonations resonate since dawn, and we see Congolese army combat helicopters running in the sky, according to AFP journalists.
Cars and motorcycles are circulating, but most shops have closed. Pillage by pro-Kinshasa militiamen have been reported in peripheral neighborhoods, according to civil society.
As the fights are getting closer, new columns of displaced.
-“Take Goma”
On Saturday evening, the spokesperson for the Congolese army accused Rwanda of being “determined to seize the city of Goma”. The city had been briefly occupied at the end of 2012 by the M23 (“March 23 movement”), born that year and defeated militarily the following year.
Thirteen South African soldiers, Malawites and Uruguayans, deployed in two regional (Samidrc) and UN (Monusco) forces for support to the Congolese army have been killed in fighting with the M23 in recent days, announced on Saturday the authorities of the three countries.
PHOTO MOSES SAWASAWA, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
A UN vehicle burns during clashes with the M23 rebels outside Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo on January 25, 2025.
Rwanda “evacuated” its latest diplomat on Kinshasa on Friday, Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe announced on Sunday. Kinshasa announced on Saturday to recall his diplomats in Kigali “with immediate effect”.
The European Union called on the M23 to “stop its progress” and Rwanda to “withdraw immediately” in a declaration signed by the 27 member countries.
The African Union (AU) claimed “strict observation of the cease-fire agreed between the parties”.
In eastern DRC rich in natural resources, conflicts have been linked for over thirty years. Half a dozen ceasefies and Trier have already been decreed and then broken in the region. The last cease-fire was signed at the end of July.
Photo Arlette Bashizi, Archives Reuters
Members of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Monusco) ensure the evacuation of the non -essential staff of the UN, following the fights between the rebels of the M23 and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo ( FARDC), in Goma, in the province of North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo on January 25, 2025.
British diplomacy David Lammy said he was “deeply concerned” on the fighting on Sunday.
French president Emmanuel Macron called on Saturday, in telephone interviews with Congolese leaders Félix Tshisekedi and Rwandais Paul Kagame, at the “immediate end of the M23 and Rwandan forces offensive”.
The conflict, which has lasted for more than three years, has further aggravated a chronic humanitarian crisis in the region. According to the UN, 400,000 people have been moved by fighting since early January.
The United Nations began to evacuate some of their Goma staff. The United States, France, the United Kingdom and Germany have called on their nationals to leave the city as long as the airport and the borders are open.
In December, a meeting between the Congolese and Rwandan presidents, as part of the Angola’s peace process, had been canceled for lack of agreement on the conditions of an agreement.
